Absolute Loyalty
by C.C. Lyn
Summary: Patriot (noun) pa·tri·ot ˈpā-trē-ət : a person who loves and strongly supports or fights for his or her country. A Shimozuru Arata one-shot inspired by Arata's hissatsu Patriot Shoot. Decided to be unromantic because that's how you write yourself a proper angst Lyn.


_**'I have sworn absolute loyalty.'**_

The sound of a ball hitting a metallic surface rings throughout the room, and the follow of an electronic beep could be heard. I bent over, panting and trying to grasp for air, as beads of sweat trickled down my forehead, across my neck, and into my jersey, soaking the two-toned gray cotton. What was once crisp and ironed, it now clung to my body as a dirtied, disheveled rag, serving only to cover up my body for the sake of public etiquette, its purpose to represent our school no longer.

The echo of other balls in rooms down the hall could be heard as the blood ringing in my ears finally started fading to a tolerable volume. I couldn't recognize whom each ball was kicked by pure hearing, but I knew the people who kicked these by heart even if I had never seen them before, nor do I know whom each are.

We are the players of Mikage Sennou, and this was our soccer. "Order is beauty, and definition of uniqueness is a plague, a liability," was the mantra we were all instructed to repeat before and after every practice and game.

By training to the same precision, we have been connected by spirit. We must unite and be as one of we were to win.

And Mikage Sennou doesn't lose.

 _ **'I pledged myself to my country, my school, my people.'**_

Because, after all, we were soldiers trained to achieve a 99.9% of perfect performance. Even if we were to lose, we were to lose without a strand of hair astray. Occasionally, the slight difference of timing or pitch of the ball bouncing off gave away to my sensitive ears whom the mistake had been caused by. But that was okay.

We were still practicing after all. Only through practice could we achieve perfect possibilities.

Finally when my racing heart finally slowed, I raised my head and directed my gray eyes at the electronic display board. In bright green it read 96.2%.

Dammit. Did that careless warm up shoot really pull down my average by so much? I knew I should have paid more attention. I really need to keep it together and remember that even the smallest error could lead to failure. Failure was not acceptable at Mikage Sennou.

I have two more shots left. I've never even hit a 99% before, but to complete my assignment I must score an average of at least 97.9%. That's 0.2% more than last week's standard. Doing the math quickly in my head, after all Mikage was one of the top test scoring schools in the country even rivaling Teikoku, only a place behind Eito to be first in the Kanto region, I knew that the only way to pass this round of practice today was if I scored something above a 98.8%.

As if that was possible.

My overall average this week was 97.5%, and my highest shot this week was a 98.4%. According to my past scoring, I had a 5% chance of passing. Today was definitely not in my favor.

But I had to do this. If I couldn't, I'd be pulled out of the team. I'll bet on 5% even if that's all I have.

 _ **'I am willing to serve with my life.'**_

The color of the number on the electronic display board suddenly changed to yellow. "Warning one, phase yellow," came the sound of a monotone female voice through my earpiece. I gritted my teeth. Now I had ten seconds to complete my last two shoots, with the additional challenge of my target board moving left and right, growing faster by the second.

The female voice started counting down. More than anything, I wanted to rip off the wires that secured the earpiece and toss it to the ground. As if the assignment wasn't already hard enough, I was now under more pressure. Every time I heard her reach another number I grew more frenzied, as my eyes desperately tried to read the movements of the target, but it was all becoming a mess in my head. The counting messed up my focus, and the growing pressure messed up my concentration.

"Warning two, phase red." Five seconds.

"Be confident," I heard a voice interrupt through the female robot voice's counting. It was our captain, Sugimori Takeshi, and the only one whom I actually knew on the team. Everyone knew him, because we were told of his name and saw him during class or between hallways, but he didn't know who any of us were. I suddenly realize how much of a burden he must hold.

His whispered, against the rules encouragement could had been directed at another player, or perhaps everyone, but to me at this moment none of it mattered. In my head it was only directed at me. It was the one thing that kept me anchored.

 _ **'I am doing this all by free will.'**_

My senses, now sharpened despite my instincts telling me that four seconds was impossible, managed to push the counting voice towards the back for this tiny moment. It was as if the world had slowed down, and I was moving through water. I pulled my leg back, and my foot made contact with the ball. After soaring across the room and hitting the censor with a satisfying thunk, I finally saw the new score.

A 99%.

 _ **'I am proud to be able to call myself a patriot, to serve my people.'**_

I broke into a strained grin, but it was far from over. I was so tired, and I had two seconds left and no room to mess up. But I was feeling light headed. So thirsty...

Somehow or another, I managed to kick the last ball and heard the digital beep right before the timer reached zero.

Another 99%.

That was when I realize I had already collapsed on the ground. Before I closed my eyes, one last image flashed before my eyes, and I came to a realization only too late.

I had been looking at my score upside down.

 _ **'I am happy being a patriot.'**_

The final average? 97.8%. I missed and failed to reach the desired average perfectly, precisely, and _exactly_.

 **Don't ask me what the theme of this story was or the message it holds, because I really don't know. I just went with it and this is how it turned out. Feel free to try to decode it and comment your thoughts below, I'd like to hear some interesting interpretations. Perhaps I'll write another Shimozuru Arata fic similar to this one, since I think this story happened before the Football Frontier started (that's why the team haven't met yet) therefore he didn't have the whole internal conflict of Fire Tornado triumphing Patriot Shoot which was what I had originally really wanted to portray. I had a lot of fun thinking up Mikage Sennou's system and mindset, which will be followed up in Cyborg Reborn (and who knows when that will update :P). And on one last note, I'd like to apologize for how short this one-shot was, but this piece does hold a lot of meaning to me myself both within the process of its creation and the final turnout.**


End file.
